When I first read the headline of the latest salivation for Tom McCarthy’s eagerly awaited novel, C
God help us, another pretentious twit comparing the absence of whatever he or she deems as true literary fiction with the downfall of rational civilization. If the “avant garde” is identified with Darwin, could the comparison of genre fiction with Creation Science be far behind?
But, ever curious about the state of literary theory, I gave the article a go. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found there, much more nuanced and fair that the above Guardian headline would lead you to think.